Optical Clock May Replace Atomic Clock

A New Type of Clock Could Change How We Measure Time

Scientists Think Optical Clocks Are Ready to Replace the Atomic Clock As the Standard

Grennan Milliken | May 25, 2016

Have you ever thought of who exactly decides what time it is? This measurement of an abstract concept is largely decided by about 500 atomic clocks—accurate to tens of quadrillionths of a second — that are scattered around the world. These machines have been our standard timekeepers for the better part of the past half-century, and they work by measuring atomic oscillations, which you can read more about here.
But the age of the atomic clock's prominence may be coming to a close: German researchers have announced a new way of using optical clocks to tell time with unmatched accuracy. Their findings are published in Optica, the journal of the Optical Society of America.

"The new strontium lattice atomic clock is so precise and stable that it won't lose a second in the next 15 billion years." Source: http://www.techtimes.com/articles/47865/20150422/15-billion-number-of-years-the-new-atomic-clock-will-be-accurate.htm

<more at http://www.popsci.com/how-optical-clocks-could-replace-atomic-clocks; related articles and links: http://www.osa.org/en-us/about_osa/newsroom/news_releases/2016/could_optical_clocks_redefine_the_length_of_a_seco/ (Could Optical Clocks Redefine the Length of a Second? May 25, 2016) and http://www.nature.com/news/precise-atomic-clock-may-redefine-time-1.13363 (Precise atomic clock may redefine time. Device lays the groundwork for a new second. July 9, 2013)>